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Most people know that both lavender and chamomile have properties that help calm and soothe frayed nerves and anxiety. Chamomile is especially popular as a bed time tea, and lavender as been used literally for centuries as the herb of choice to calm a fussy baby.

But did you also know that both of these oh-so-gentle essential oils have remarkable healing qualities for the skin as well? Lavender can soothe irritated or burned skin like no other oil. The discovery is well documented by a french chemist named Gattefossé. When he burned his hand quite badly, he immediately plunged it into the nearest vat of liquid to cool it. That vat happened to be full of lavender oil. He was amazed at how quickly the burn healed and more surprising still, it healed without any scarring.

Chamomile also has superstar medicinal qualities as well. Inflammation, insomnia and skin abrasions are just a few of the ailments this gentle but powerful herb has been used for. You can even find chamomile in a dissolvable tablet form to help soothe teething pain.

A simple way to introduce the benefits of lavender and chamomile to your baby is to put a drop of each into a 1/4 cup of carrier oil such as almond or apricot. We recommend using so little because essential oils are powerful and you don’t need much to reap all the benefit. You can then use this mild blend as a baby massage oil and moisturizer.

We love lavender and chamomile for babies so much that we’ve used them in all of our baby products. Check out our Baby Bum Balm, Baby Spray, Baby Powder, Baby Bear Soap and Baby Foaming Wash. You’ll find them wonderfully helpful for common baby ailments from cradle cap to diaper rash. They’re gentle, natural, and of course toxin-free.

Blowing bubbles is should be a mandatory part of childhood, don’t you think? There is nothing quite as delightful as blowing some big fat bubbles and watching them float away on a light breeze (or jumping and chasing them in a mad effort to pop them). It’s the perfect activity to gets kids enjoying the outdoors and perfecting their bubble blowing skills. Luckily, it’s super easy to make up your own toxin-free bubble solution with natural soap.

If you’re feeling industrious and resourceful you can even avoid plastic bubble blowing toys and make your own bubble wands out of soft gauge aluminum or copper wire. You can find desirable wire at any hardware store. Use a pair of wire cutters and needle nose pliers to mold the wire into small and large loops. Spiral the wire onto itself to make a handle and be sure to bend any cut ends back on themselves and pinch them tightly to make the bubble want skin and clothing friendly.

To mix up your own bubble solution, you’ll only need three ingredients (we said it was easy!):
*1/2 cup castile liquid soap (such as our Unscented Body Wash)
*1/2 cup of glycerin or corn syrup
*2.5 cups of water

Instructions
*Blend the glycerin or syrup into the water first. Stir it well until it has dissolved.
*Add the soap next, stirring it in gently to avoid making a lot of froth.
*Let the mixture sit for at least a couple of hours if not a full day. Allowing it to rest makes for better quality bubbles.
*Send the kiddies out to fill the air and their hair with delightful toxin-free bubbles while you sit back and enjoy the laughter.

You know it well…after a day out and about it feels limp, heavy, and greasy at the roots.

Well fear no more because lemongrass and rosemary are your new best friends. Both of these wonders of nature can be used to help normalize oil production, and they both have anti-fungal qualities as well.

It’s not difficult to make a refreshing hair rinse that will leave your hair smelling wonderful, feeling soft, and keep your oil production under control. It’ll have the most impact if you use it twice per week.

It’s so simple to make, all you need to do is wash a handful of lemongrass stalks, peel the outer layers off and cut off the bottoms. Rinse a few stalks of fresh rosemary as well, there’s no need to remove the needles from the stalks. Boil them both in 4 cups of filtered water for ten minutes, or longer if you want a stronger aroma. The more stalks you use, the more scented your rinse will be. Remove from heat and allow the infusion to cool. You’ll love the way your kitchen smells. Decant the rinse into a few bottles for easy storage.

To use the hair rinse, simply shampoo with your favourite toxin-free hair care such as our Rosemary Mint Shampoo. Condition as you would normally, and rinse thoroughly with your homemade hair rinse.

We opened a cute pop-up location in Chinook last year with the intention of keeping it for only a little while after Christmas. Turns out you like having us there, Chinook likes having us there and we like being there because we’re now going to remain open until at least the end of January, 2016. So next time you’re out for a ship in the heart of Calgary, make sure you pop by and say hello to Jillian and the team at our boutique.

With the opening of our newest location in Market Mall, we’ve now got four great locations in Calgary to fulfill your craving for 100% natural and toxin-free bath and body goodies. You can also find us at TD Centre (downtown), and Southcentre Mall.

The short answer on Sunscreen is ‘not yet’. 100% natural and toxin-free sunscreen that is non-whitening, spreads beautifully and smells amazing is not an easy task. We are hard at work on a formula and we’re getting pretty excited about it because the prototypes we’ve been testing have shown great promise. We’ll be perfecting our recipes over the winter and will be ready to reveal our best work in the summer of 2016, so thank you for bearing with us.

In the meantime, we do stock Green Beaver’s SPF 27 Spray and SPF 30 Lotion which is a 100% natural, non-whitening, fragrance free product that we hope will suit your needs.

How About After Sun Care?
If you’ve been a fan of our products for a while, you’ll recall a lovely little butter called After Sun that contains lavender and arnica and a host of other helpful oils to soothe skin that’s gotten a little too much love from the sun. After Sun has a pretty big following, and we love this product too.

Unfortunately, as can sometimes happen with products that are made without synthetic stabilizers and preservatives, natural formulas can react to excess heat or moisture in unpredictable ways. This is what’s happened with After Sun. We want to present nothing but the best we can make. So we’re hard at work improving the stability and efficacy of the formula so that we can re-launch it next summer to great hurrah and fanfare. Thanks so much for your patience, we so appreciate it!

Did you know that root beer the way your grand-parents made it is actually a delicious fermented beverage that is high in probiotics and friendly gut bacteria? The ingredients aren’t necessarily easy to find but if you can pull them together the recipe is easy to make and the results are absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

1/4 cup sassafras root bark

1/4 cup winter green leaf

2 tablespoons sarsaparilla root

1 tablespoon liquorice root

1 tablespoon ginger root

1 tablespoon birch bark

1 teaspoon juniper berries

1 cinnamon stick

1 cup unrefined cane sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup lime juice (optional)

1 packet kefir starter culture (or ginger bug)

10 cups of filtered water

Directions

Bring the water to a boil and stir in the sassafras, sarsaparilla, wintergreen, liquorice, ginger, juniper, and birch bark. Reduce heat and let simmer for twenty minutes.

Then strain it through a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth into a pitcher. Stir in the unrefined cane sugar, molasses and lime juice until it dissolves and allow it to cool enough to match body temperature. Then stir in the kefir starter. Pour the blend into individual bottles leaving at least one inch of room in the top. Bottles with a flip-top stopper are recommended.

Allow the root beer to ferment for three to four days at room temperature, then put it in the fridge for another 2 days. When you’re ready to open just remember that it will be pressurized because it has been fermenting (it’ll have a delightful fizzy soda-pop taste) so be careful and open it over the sink or outside.

Serve with ice on a hot day and enjoy the taste of root beer the way it was meant to be enjoyed. And isn’t it great to know that its good for you too!

Whether you’ve got oily or dry skin, cucumber will benefit your pretty mug. Try one of these easy mask recipes and reap all the benefits of the uber-hydrating and anti-inflammatory cuke. Your skin will feel soft and refreshed.

Remove the seeds from the cucumber. Blend everything up until its nice and frothy. Leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes to cool. Apply to the face (make sure you tie your hair back) and relax for 15 minutes. Rinse with cool water.

You might think of cucumber as conveniently packaged water and while they are 95% H2O, make no mistake…this humble green veggie packs a nutritional punch for your body both on the inside and the out.

For your inner beauty, it contains mega B vitamins as well as vitamin K and a host of other necessary nutrients that come together to fight inflammation, reduce the risk of cancer, and nourish the brain. They’re rich in anti-oxidants so enjoy them for their ability to keep you young and well-hydrated. If you feel like your breath might need a little freshening, pop in a cucumber slice and suck on it for a while. If you’re a fan of fresh veggie juice, don’t forget to include cucumber as it makes the perfect base.

For your skin, cucumber has a wonderful cooling and anti-inflammatory effect. You can’t find any better treatment for puffy eyes than two slices of cool cucumber.
Cucumber and skin have the same percentage of water content so along with its hydrating and softening effects this juicy little veg is the perfect one to select when making a facial treatment at home. If you’re keen to try one of our cucumber based face masks, just check out this blog.

It takes a village to open a store and this one has been no exception. Thanks to everyone of the soap stars who made the magic happen! We’re excited about it because it marks the next evolution of toxin-free store design, and we think you’ll agree when you see it for yourself that it is completely unique. We’ve achieved a new level of sustainability and have worked closely with manufacturers and trades to make sure this store is free from any of the items found on our red list and is as environmentally friendly as possible.

A couple of examples of these efforts include the American Clay walls which help to purify the air, the signature white wood which is reclaimed pine, and the marble display tables which have been rescued from an office building in Toronto and given new life in our store.

The backlit bottle wall we erected as a visual reminder of our roots; nature. With the art, design and materials we’ve used, we wanted to remind everyone where we’ve come from and where we’re going. Once upon a time body care was made from the plants, flowers and trees found in our own back yards. In the chemical boom of the 60’s we were seduced by the effect that synthetic products could have on our skin, teeth and hair.

Decades later, we’re finally waking up to the fact that our great-grandparents had it right all along. Everything we need to keep us clean, healthy and beautiful is provided by the earth.

Come visit our newest gem in Market Mall and say hello to Miranda and the team. As always we ‘heart’ your feedback so let us know what you think!